Did anyone see any jaw dropping must have costumes for next year? Anything you want to bring to the shop and start the planning to be the king of your neighborhood? How about any killer lawn/house decorations?

Swing by the shop tonight and share what you saw, did or want to do next year!

Eugene Maker Space will be holding it’s first ever Punkin Chunkin’ contest! If you aren’t familiar with the tradition of punkin chunkin’ then you are in for a treat. The general idea is for teams to build contraptions that can launch pumpkins as far as possible. Whichever team can launch their pumpkins the farthest will reign as champions! A simple Google search for “punkin chunkin” will bring up plenty of information and videos of other contests and designs.

Since we will be holding this event at the Science Factory, and we want to make sure it’s as safe as possible, we will be launching small pumpkins only. These are pumpkins weighing between 1.5lbs and 2lbs. This will help keep the contraption size and energy down to a minimum and hopefully prevent any dangerous mishaps.

You can see the launch zone in the below picture. Contestants will launch from the blue firing line aiming down range to the east. The first red box is the primary launch zone. “The Great Beyond” is further down range and will remain clear in case any contestants are capable of building launchers that can actually chunk that far.

How to enter

You do not have to be a member of Eugene Maker Space to compete. Everyone is allowed to participate! If you would like to sign up to compete, please email rick@eugenemakerspace.com with your team name and the names of your team members.

Now for the official EMS Punkin Chunkin’ rules!

Safety

No compressed air/compressed gas devices

No explosives.

Teams must release all energy from their launchers until it is their turn.

Contest Rules

You may sign up as an individual or as a team.

Machine must not cross the firing line.

Machines must be ready to fire within 3 minutes.

Each team will get three launches.

If a team loses a pumpkin after launch they may get an one extra try if the team has a backup pumpkin ready to go.

Pumpkins must weigh between 1.5lbs and 2lbs.

Teams provide their own pumpkins.

Pumpkins must remain intact until they hit the ground.

Pumpkins cannot be modified (except for painting).

Teams may paint their pumpkins for decoration.

How to Win

To win the competition you just need to chunk your pumpkin farther than the other teams. That’s it! There will be three heats. Whichever team gets the furthest launched pumpkin out of all three heats will be declared the champions.

Eugene Maker Space held our very first Family Hack Day on June 1, 2013. We had a decent sized group of kids and families show up to get some work done on their own projects. And boy did work get done. We also had several EMS members show up to lend a hand and teach some new skills. Thanks to everybody who came out to make this event a success. It went so well that we intend to put on another one in the not-too-distant future. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on that. In the meantime, check out what everyone was working on! Continue reading Family Hack Day a Success!→

The first EMS Make-O-Rama was held last Saturday, Feb 23 from 11AM to 4PM. We had a good turn out. We had a good portion of our membership turn up to help out either by showing off projects or talking with visitors. We had a ton of snacks, drinks, pizza, and good conversations. A few people were able to solder electronic components to a circuit board for the very first time, which is was exciting. Austin set up a GoPro camera to take time lapse footage of the event. You can check it out below. Clif also took some photos during the event and uploaded them to the EMS gallery. Check them out!

The Eugene Public Library hosts events for young kids on Sunday afternoons. A few months back, Eugene Maker Space was invited to host one of these events at EPL. We accepted the offer and on February 3, 2013, six members from EMS went to the library to run the event.

The age group for these events is typically ages 3-7, plus parents of course. We thought that building and launching paper rockets would be a great event for this age group. It’s also relatively inexpensive for us to host since we already have two available rocket launchers and the rockets themselves are made from just computer paper and masking tape. Continue reading Eugene Public Library Event→